Police on alert. Three companies of PAC deployed. Police claim to solve the murder in 12 hours.

New Delhi: Amethi grew from sombre to tense after a close aide of Smriti Irani and ex-sarpanch of Baraulia village Surendra Singh was killed just outside his house on the intervening night of May 25 and 26, even as Irani rushed to Amethi and participated in his last rites.

The BJP, as well as the kin of the deceased, have alleged that Singh’s was a political murder, pointing at the Congress. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had lost this traditional bastion of his family to Irani on May 23. Singh was said to be close to Irani and was very active in her campaigning.

According to the Director General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh (UP), three companies of the PAC have been deputed in Amethi to avert any situation.

According to the police, that claimed to solve the murder within 12 hours, seven people have been detained in connection with the murder so far.

Meanwhile, not just Irani, but several top leaders and ministers of the Yogi Adityanath government rushed to Amethi to be beside Singh’s family during his last rites.

Talking to MyNation, close associates of Irani said Singh was a peaceful person and his death has come as a personal loss to her.

Incidentally, Baraulia had voted en masse for Irani and was one of the top villages from where Irani returned huge margins over Gandhi. Also, this was the village that was adopted by the former defence minister and ex-chief minister of Goa late Manohar Parrikar. “He had given Baraulia some Rs 16 crore for development and Surendra Singh was the engine behind that,” said a BJP worker.

Singh was the gram pradhan for nearly 20 years and was a dedicated activist of BJP. “This is a political killing, plain and simple. Singh was a peace-loving mild-mannered person and he had no issues with people to the extent that someone would kill him. Just before his death, he had met Smriti Irani at a village not five kilometres from his own,” said a close-aide of Irani.